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A ‹The template BEAE is being considered for deletion.› tram, tramcar (British English) or streetcar (American English), trolley or trolleycar is a railborne vehicle, of lighter weight and construction than a conventional train, designed for the transport of passengers (and, very occasionally, freight) within, close to, or between villages, towns and/or cities, on tracks running primarily on streets. Certain types of cable car are also known as trams.
The Silesian Interurbans in Poland and the Trams in Melbourne, Australia are claimed to be the largest tram networks in the world. Before its decline the BVG in Berlin operated a very large network with 634km of route. During a while in the 1980s the world's largest tram system was in Leningrad, USSR, being included in Guinness World Records. Other large systems include Amsterdam, Basel, Zurich and Toronto. Until the system started to be converted to trolleybus (and later bus) in the 1930s, the first-generation London network was also one of the world's largest, with 526 km (327 mi) of route in 1934. [1]
‹The template BEAE is being considered for deletion.› Tramways with tramcars (British English) or street railways with streetcars (American English) were common throughout the industrialised world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries but they had disappeared from most British, Canadian, French and U.S. cities by the mid-20th century.[2]
By contrast, trams in parts of continental Europe continued to be used by many cities, although there were contractions in some countries, including the Netherlands. [3]
Since 1980 trams have returned to favour in many places, partly because their tendency to dominate the highway, formerly seen as a disadvantage, is now considered to be a merit. New systems have been built in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, France and many other countries.
Tramways are now included in the wider term "light rail", which also includes segregated systems. Some systems have both segregated and street-running sections, but are usually then referred to as trams, because it is the equipment for street-running which tends to be the decisive factor. Vehicles on wholly segregated light rail systems are generally called trains, although cases have been known of "trains" built for a segregated system being sold on to new owners and becoming "trams".
The terms tram and tramway were originally Scots and Northern English words for the type of truck used in coal mines and the tracks on which they ran, probably derived from the North Sea Germanic word trame of unknown origin meaning the beam or shaft of a barrow or sledge, also the barrow itself.[4]
Although tram and tramway have been adopted by many languages, they are not used universally in English, North Americans preferring trolley, trolleycar or streetcar. The term streetcar is first recorded in 1860. When electrification came, Americans began to speak of trolleycars or later, trolleys, believed to derive from the troller, a four-wheeled device that was dragged along dual overhead wires by a cable that connected the troller to the top of the car and collected electrical power from the overhead wires, sometimes simply strung, sometimes on a catenary.[5] The trolley pole, which supplanted the troller early on, is fitted to the top of the car and is spring-loaded in order to keep the trolley wheel or skate, at the top of the pole, firmly in contact with the overhead wire. The terms trolley pole and trolley wheel both derive from the troller.[6] Trams are generally powered through a single trolley wheel and pole, grounded through the wheels and rails. The motor circuit is designed to allow electrical current to flow through the underframe.
Although this use of "trolley" for tram was not adopted in Europe, the term did appear with "trolleybus": a rubber tyred vehicle without tracks which draws its power from overhead wires.
Modern trolleys often use a metal shoe with a carbon insert instead of a trolley wheel, or have a pantograph. In North America, trams are sometimes called trolleys, even though strictly this may be incorrect: for example, cable cars, or conduit cars that draw power from an underground supply.
Tourist buses made to look like streetcars are sometimes called trolleys in the U.S. (tourist trolley). Open, low-speed segmented vehicles on rubber tires, generally used to ferry tourists short distances, can be called trams, for example on the Universal Studios backlot tour.
Electric buses, which use twin trolley poles (one for live current, one for return) but have wheels with tyres rolling on a hard surface rather than tracks, are called trolleybuses, trackless trolleys (particularly in the U.S.), or sometimes (in the UK) simply trolleys.
The very first tram was on the Swansea and Mumbles Railway in south Wales, UK; it was horse-drawn at first, and later moved by steam and electric power. The Mumbles Railway Act was passed by the British Parliament in 1804, and the first passenger railway (similar to streetcars in the US some 30 years later) started operating in 1807.[7] The first streetcars, also known as horsecars in North America, were built in the United States and developed from city stagecoach lines and omnibus lines that picked up and dropped off passengers on a regular route without the need to be pre-hired. These trams were an animal railway, usually using horses and sometimes mules to haul the cars, usually two as a team. Occasionally other animals were put to use, or humans in emergencies. The first streetcar line, developed by Irish-American John Stephenson, was the New York and Harlem Railroad's Fourth Avenue Line which ran along the Bowery and Fourth Avenue in New York City. Service began in 1832.[8] It was followed in 1835 by New Orleans, Louisiana, which has the oldest continuously operating street railway system in the world, according to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.[9]
In 1883, Magnus Volk constructed his 2-ft gauge Volk's Electric Railway along the eastern seafront at Brighton, England. This 2-km line, re-gauged to 2ft 9ins in 1884, remains in service to this day, and is the oldest operating electric tramway in the world.
The first electric street tramway in Britain, the Blackpool Tramway, was opened on 29 September 1885 using conduit collection along Blackpool Promenade. After 1960, this remained the only first-generation operational tramway in the UK; it is open still.
Electric trams probably ran in Budapest from 1887 while Bucharest and Belgrade.[10] ran a regular service from 1894 and Sarajevo from 1895.[11][12][13]
In the United States, automobile and tire manufacturers conspired to close down the US streetcar system in the Great American streetcar scandal.
However, there are additional documented reasons for the demise of trolleys in the United States. For instance, "before World War I, the number of privately owned automobiles increased rapidly. People who could afford autos began to drive them to work rather than taking the trolley. As their numbers rapidly increased, the effects were felt by the street railways.”[14] Another factor was the jitney, which allowed a cheaper means of transportation than the trolley for people who could not afford a car themselves. Jitneys were basically taxis that would run up and down the trolley lines a few minutes before the trolley’s planned arrival and pick up passengers who would normally be waiting for a trolley. It was cheaper to ride in a jitney (the term is an early 20th-century American slang for a nickel, a five-cent coin) than in a trolley, making this a very attractive alternative for commuters.
Chicago had the largest streetcar system in the world at its peak during the first half of the 20th century, with over 250 miles of track and providing over 900 million rides annually at its peak. Today, there are no streetcars remaining; the last trolleys were converted to elevated trains in the 1950s. The last streetcar run was on June 21, 1958. The streetcar rails are still visible in numerous locations throughout the city, having been left in place & simply paved over.
Politics are also believed to have played a role in U.S. trolleys. Particularly in Spokane, Washington, for example, the trolley companies not only had to pay a fee to the city for use of the city streets for their lines, but they were also required to pay for the paving and upkeep of the streets where their tracks ran. Also, they were required to keep their tracks plowed during winter.[citation needed]
In Canada, Toronto currently has North America's largest streetcar system by usage and is one of the popular modes of transportation in the city's downtown area. It is also the only city to have streetcar/trolley service remaining in Canada. Modern light rail transit however currently exists in Toronto, as well as Vancouver and Edmonton. Many smaller cities, such as Mississauga, are considering development of new light rail transit lines.
A resurgence in the modern streetcar began in the United States in the mid 1980s with over a dozen projects under way by the start of the 1990s. By 1995, eight new light rail systems had been constructed in the United States alone including Baltimore, MD, Dallas Area Rapid Transit and San Jose, CA.
Various types of rail networks are being built all across the United States. Recent ones include Phoenix's Valley Metro Light Rail, and Sound-Transit light rail in the greater Seattle area. There are new or planned streetcar developments in Tucson, AZ, Philadelphia, Memphis, Little Rock, and various other cities across the United States.[15] However, some proposals have met with opposition and instead been re-focused as a regional light rail system such as the Columbus Streetcar.
Cities such as Boston, San Francisco, Portland, Jersey City, Philadelphia, and San Diego have modern tram systems already in place.
Throughout the world there are many tram systems; some dating from the late 19th or early 20th centuries. However a large number of the old systems were closed during the mid-20th century because of such perceived drawbacks as route inflexibility and maintenance expense. This was especially the case in North American, British, French and other West European cities. Some traditional tram systems did however survive and remain operating much as when first built over a century ago. In the past twenty years their numbers have been augmented by modern tramway or light rail systems in cities that had discarded this form of transport.
In many European cities much tramway infrastructure was lost in the mid-20th century, though not always on the same scale as in other parts of the world such as North America. Most of Eastern Europe retained tramway systems until recent years but some cities are now reconsidering their transport priorities. In contrast, some Western European cities are rehabilitating, upgrading, expanding and reconstructing their old tramway lines. Many Western European towns and cities are also building new tramway lines.
In North America, especially the United States, trams are generally known as streetcars or trolleys; the term tram is more likely to be understood as a tourist trolley, an aerial tramway, or a people-mover.
Streetcar lines were largely torn up in the mid-20th century for a variety of financial, technological and social reasons. (See also the Great American Streetcar Scandal.) Exceptions include New Orleans, Newark, Seattle, Philadelphia (with a much smaller network than once had existed), and San Francisco. Pittsburgh kept most of its streetcar system serving the city and many suburbs until January 27, 1967, making it the longest-lasting large-network U.S. streetcar system. Toronto has the largest streetcar system in the Americas. In the late 20th century, several cities installed light rail systems, in part along the same corridor as the old streetcars. Some have restored their old streetcars and run them as a heritage feature for tourists like the Vancouver Downtown Historic Railway.
Buenos Aires in Argentina had once one of the most extensive tramway networks in the world with over 857 km (535 mi) of track, most of it dismantled during the 1960s in favor or bus transportation. Now slowly coming back, the 2 km Puerto Madero Tramway running in the Puerto Madero district is spearheading the move with extensions to Retiro station and La Boca in the planning stages. Another line, the PreMetro line E2 system feeding the Line E of the Buenos Aires Subway has been operating for the past few years on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, and a unique leisure “Tren de la Costa”, an artery that stretches for 15 kilometres by the River Plate, from Olivos to the village of Tigre has also been running in Buenos Aires.
Also in Argentina, in the city Mendoza, a new tramway line is in construction, the Metrotranvía of Mendoza, which will have a route of 12.5 km and will link five districts of the Greater Mendoza conurbation. The opening of the system is scheduled for 2011.[16]
Tramway systems were well established in the Asian region at the start of the 20th century, but started a steady decline during the mid to late 30s. The 1960s marked the end of its dominance in public transportation with most major systems closed and the equipment and rails sold for scrap; however, some extensive original lines still remain in service in Hong Kong and Japan. In recent years there has been renewed interest in the tram with modern systems being built in South Korea, Japan, and the Philippines.
The first Japanese tram line was inaugurated in 1895 as the Kyoto Electric Railroad. The tram reached its zenith in 1932 when 82 rail companies operated 1,479 kilometers of track in 65 cities. The tram declined in popularity through the remaining years of the 30s, a trend that was accelerated by the damages of the War and continued through the Occupation and rebuilding years. During the 1960s many of the remaining operational tramways were shut down and dismantled in favor of auto, bus, and rapid rail service; however, when one compares the number of operational lines that survived this era to their American counterparts, they can be defined as quite extensive.
In Australasia, trams are used extensively only in Melbourne, and to a lesser extent, Adelaide, all other major cities having largely dismantled their networks by the 1970s. Sydney reintroduced its tram in 1997 as a modern system (Metro Light Rail), while Ballarat, Bendigo, Christchurch and Perth reintroduced their trams as heritage systems.
A distinctive feature of many Australasian trams was the early use of a lowered central section between bogies (wheel-sets). This was intended to make passenger access easier, by reducing the number of steps required to reach the inside of the vehicle. It is believed that the design first originated in Christchurch in the first decade of the 20th century. Cars with this design feature were frequently referred to as "drop-centres".
The trams made by Boon & Co of Christchurch, New Zealand in 1906-07 for use in Christchurch may have been the first with this feature; they were referred to as drop-centres or Boon cars. Trams for Christchurch and Wellington built in the 1920s with an enclosed section at each end and an open-sided middle section were also known as Boon cars, but did not have the drop-centre.
In the 19th century, Calcutta (now Kolkata) was developing fast as a British trading and business centre. Transport was mainly by palanquins carried on men's shoulders or phaetons pulled by horses. In 1867, the Calcutta Corporation, with financial assistance from the Government of Bengal, developed mass transport. The first tramcar travelled the streets of Calcutta on February 24, 1873, with horse-drawn coaches running on steel rails.[17] The horse tramcar was a part of (so called) 300 year celebration of Kolkata. It then ran from Binay Badal Dinesh Bag to Rajabazar, mostly following the first horse tram route. The tram was a modified single coach (earlier) electric tram. None of the original horse trams have been preserved.
The first mechanical trams were powered by steam. Generally, there were two types of steam tram. The first and most common had a small steam locomotive (called a tram engine in the UK) at the head of a line of one or more carriages, similar to a small train. Systems with such steam trams included Christchurch, New Zealand; Sydney, Australia; and other city systems in New South Wales. Steam tramways also were used on the suburban tramway lines around Milan; the last Gamba de Legn tramway ("Peg-Leg" in Milanese) ran on the Milan-Magenta-Castano Primo route in late 1958.
The other style of steam tram had the steam engine in the body of the tram, referred to as a tram engine or steam dummy. The most notable system to adopt such trams was in Paris. French-designed steam trams also operated in Rockhampton, in the Australian state of Queensland between 1909 and 1939. Stockholm, Sweden, had a steam tram line at the island of Södermalm between 1887 and 1901. A major drawback of this style of tram was the limited space for the engine, so that these trams were usually underpowered.
The next type of tram was the cable car, which sought to reduce labour costs and the hardship on animals. Cable cars are pulled along the track by a continuously moving cable running at a constant speed that individual cars grip and release to stop and start. The power to move the cable is provided at a site away from the actual operation. The first cable car line in the United States was tested in San Francisco, California, in 1873. The second city to operate cable trams was Dunedin in New Zealand, from 1881 to 1957.
Cable Cars operated on Highgate Hill in North London and Kennington to Brixton Hill In South London.
They also worked around "Upper Douglas" in the Isle of Man, Cable Car 72/73 being the sole survivor of the fleet.
Cable cars suffered from high infrastructure costs, since an expensive system of cables, pulleys, stationary engines and vault structures between the rails had to be provided. They also require strength and skill to operate, to avoid obstructions and other cable cars. The cable had to be dropped at particular locations and the cars coast, for example when crossing another cable line. Breaks and frays in the cable, which occurred frequently, required the complete cessation of services over a cable route, while the cable was repaired. After the development of electrically powered trams, the more costly cable car systems declined rapidly.
Cable cars were especially effective in hilly cities, because the cable laid in the tracks physically pulled the car up the hill at a strong, steady pace, as opposed to the low-powered steam dummies trying to chug up a hill at almost a crawl, or worse a horse-drawn trolley trying to pull a load up a hill.
This concept partially explains their survival in San Francisco. However, the most extensive cable system in the U.S. was in Chicago, a much flatter city. The largest cable system in the world, in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, had at its peak 592 trams running on 74 kilometres of track.
The San Francisco cable cars, though significantly reduced in number, continue to perform a regular transportation function, in addition to being a tourist attraction. A single line also survives in Wellington, New Zealand (rebuilt in 1979 as a funicular but still called the "Wellington Cable Car").
Multiple functioning experimental electric trams were exhibited at the 1884 World Cotton Centennial World's Fair in New Orleans, Louisiana, but they were not deemed good enough to replace the Lamm fireless engines then propelling the St. Charles Avenue Streetcar in that city.
Electric trams (trolley cars) were first successfully tested in service in Richmond, Virginia, in 1888, in the Richmond Union Passenger Railway built by Frank J. Sprague. There were earlier commercial installations of electric streetcars, including one in Berlin as early as 1881 by Werner von Siemens and the company that still bears his name, and in Saint Petersburg, Russia, invented and tested by Fyodor Pirotsky in 1880. Another was by John Joseph Wright, brother of the famous mining entrepreneur Whitaker Wright, in Toronto in 1883. The first commercial installation of an electric streetcar in the United States was built in 1884 in Cleveland, Ohio and operated for a period of one year by the East Cleveland Street Railway Company.[18] Earlier installations proved difficult or unreliable. Siemens’ line, for example, provided power through a live rail and a return rail, like a model train, limiting the voltage that could be used, and providing electric shocks to people and animals crossing the tracks.[19] Siemens later designed his own method of current collection, from an overhead wire, called the bow collector, and Thorold, Ontario, opened in 1887, and was considered quite successful at the time. While this line proved quite versatile as one of the earliest fully functional electric streetcar installations, it required horse-drawn support while climbing the Niagara Escarpment and for two months of the winter when hydroelectricity was not available. It continued in service in its original form into the 1950s.
The largest tram network in the world is in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and has 499 trams running on 249 kilometres of track with 1770 tram stops.[20]
Since Sprague's installation was the first to prove successful in all conditions, he is credited with being the inventor of the trolley car. He later developed multiple unit control, first demonstrated in Chicago in 1897, allowing multiple cars to be coupled together and operated by a single motorman. This gave birth to the modern subway train.
Two rare but significant alternatives were conduit current collection, which was widely used in London, Washington, D.C. and New York, and the surface contact collection method, used in Wolverhampton (the Lorain system), Hastings (the Dolter stud system) in the UK, and currently in Bordeaux, France (the ground-level power supply system).
Attempts to use batteries as a source of electricity were made from the 1880s and 1890s, with unsuccessful trials conducted in among other places Bendigo and Adelaide in Australia, and for about 14 years as The Hague accutram of HTM in the Netherlands.
A Welsh example of a tram was usually known as the Mumbles Train, or more formally as the Swansea and Mumbles Railway. Built as the Oystermouth Railway in 1804, on March 25, 1807 it became the first passenger-carrying railway in the world. Converted to an overhead wire system it operated electric cars from March 2, 1929 until its closure on January 5, 1960. These were the largest tram cars built for use in Britain and seated 106 passengers.
The world's first hydroelectric powered tram system was the Giant's Causeway Tramway which originally ran from Portrush to Bushmills in Northern Ireland.[21] At its opening in 1883 it was hailed as “the first long electric tramway in the world”.[22] Another early tram system operated from 1886 until 1930 in Appleton, Wisconsin, and is notable for being powered by the world's first hydroelectric power station, which began operating on September 30, 1882 as the Appleton Edison Electric Company.
There is one particular hazard associated with trams powered from a trolley off an overhead line. Since the tram relies on contact with the rails for the current return path, a problem arises if the tram is derailed or (more usually) if it halts on a section of track that has been particularly heavily sanded by a previous tram, and the tram loses electrical contact with the rails. In this event, the underframe of the tram, by virtue of a circuit path through ancillary loads (such as saloon lighting), is live at the full supply voltage, typically 600 volts. In British terminology such a tram was said to be ‘grounded’—not to be confused with the US English use of the term, which means the exact opposite. Any person stepping off the tram completed the earth return circuit and could receive a nasty electric shock. In such an event the driver was required to jump off the tram (avoiding simultaneous contact with the tram and the ground) and pull down the trolley before allowing passengers off the tram. Unless derailed, the tram could usually be recovered by running water down the running rails from a point higher than the tram. The water providing a conducting bridge between the tram and the rails.
In the 2000s, two companies introduced catenary-free designs. Alstom's Citadis line uses a third rail, and Bombardier's PRIMOVE LRV is charged by contactless induction plates embedded in the trackway.[23]
In some places, other forms of power were used to power the tram. Hastings and some other tramways, for example Stockholms Spårvägar in Sweden and some lines in Karachi, used petrol trams and Lytham St Annes used gas trams. Paris operated trams that were powered by compressed air using the Mekarski system. In New York City some minor lines used storage batteries; a longer battery-operated tramway line ran from Milan to Bergamo (about 60 km) during the '50s.
The latest generation of light rail vehicles is of partial or fully low-floor design, with the floor 300 to 360 mm (11.8 to 14.2 in) above top of rail, a capability not found in older vehicles. This allows them to load passengers, including those in wheelchairs, directly from low-rise platforms that are not much more than raised sidewalks. This satisfies requirements to provide access to disabled passengers without using expensive wheelchair lifts, while at the same time making boarding faster and easier for other passengers.
Various companies have developed particular low floor designs, varying from part low floor, e.g. Citytram [24] , to 100% low floor, where a corridor between the drive wheels links each end of the tram. Passengers appreciate the ease of boarding and alighting from low floor trams but for the operator the restrictions of seating layout imposed by 100% designs limits the ability to provide seats, and to vary the configuration for different city needs. In general, however, passenger satisfaction is high as can be seen from the low-floor trams in Melbourne, Australia.[25] Low-floor trams are now running in many cities around the world, including Milan, Dublin, Melbourne, Sydney, Buenos Aires, Istanbul and Nantes.
Articulated trams have several sections connected by flexible joints and a round platform. Like articulated buses, they have increased passenger capacity. These trams can be up to 54 metres (177 ft) long[26] (such as in Budapest, Hungary), [27] while a regular tram has to be much shorter. With this type, a Jacobs bogie supports the articulation between the two or more carbody sections. An articulated tram may be low floor variety or high (regular) floor variety.
Double decker trams operate in Alexandria, Blackpool and Hong Kong.
Tram-train operation uses vehicles such as the Flexity Link and Regio-Citadis, which are suited for use on urban tram lines and also meet the necessary indication, power, and strength requirements for operation on main-line railways. This allows passengers to travel from suburban areas into city-centre destinations without having to change from a train to a tram.
It has been primarily developed in Germanic countries, in particular Germany and Switzerland. Karlsruhe is a notable pioneer of the tram-train.
Goods have been carried on rail vehicles through the streets, particularly near docks and steelworks, since the 19th century (most evident on the Weymouth Harbour Tramway in Weymouth, Dorset[28]), and some Belgian vicinale routes were used to haul timber. At the turn of the 21st century, a new interest has arisen in using urban tramway systems to transport goods. The motivation now is to reduce air pollution, traffic congestion and damage to road surfaces in city centres. Dresden has a regular CarGoTram service, run by the world's longest tram trainsets (59.4 metres (195 ft)), carrying car parts across the city centre to its Volkswagen factory.[29] Vienna and Zürich use trams as mobile recycling depots. Kislovodsk had a freight-only tram system comprising one line which was used exclusively to deliver bottled Narzan mineral water to the railway station.[30]
In the spring of 2007, Amsterdam piloted a cargo tram operation, aiming to reduce particulate pollution by 20% by halving the number of lorries—currently 5,000—unloading in the inner city during the permitted timeframe from 07:00 till 10:30. The pilot, operated by City Cargo Amsterdam, involved two cargo trams, operating from a distribution centre and delivering to a ‘hub’ where electric trucks delivered to the final destination.
The trial was successful, releasing an intended investment of 100 million euro in a fleet of 52 cargo trams distributing from four peripheral ‘cross docks’ to 15 inner-city hubs by 2012. These specially built vehicles would be 30 feet (9.1 m) long with 12 axles and a payload of 30 tons. On weekdays, trams are planned to make 4 deliveries per hour between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. and two per hour between 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. With each unloading operation taking on average 10 minutes, this means that each site would be active for 40 minutes out of each hour during the morning rush hour. In early 2009 the scheme was suspended owing to the financial crisis impeding fund-raising.[31]
All transit services involve a trade-off between speed and frequency of stops. Services that stop frequently have a lower overall speed, and are therefore less attractive for longer trips. Metros, light rail, monorail, and bus rapid transit are all forms of rapid transit — which generally signifies high speed and widely spaced stops. Trams are often used as a form of local transit, making frequent stops. Thus, the most meaningful comparison of advantages and disadvantages is with other forms of local transit, primarily the local bus.
 Trams in Helsinki |
 Tram tracks can be hazardous to cyclists |
 Hong Kong Tramways passing each other at Central. |
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 1920 Toronto streetcar. |
 Tramways on ice of the River Neva in Saint Petersburg |
 The San Diego Trolley going through downtown. |
 Trams in Calcutta |
France
Italy
Romania
Belarus
Spain
Croatia
Czech Republic (1951-1999)
United Kingdom Croatia (produced trams, 1957–1993) Romania Romania 1972–1990 United Kingdom Italy
Poland
Hungary Czech Republic Poland Poland Poland
Latvia
Russia
Germany Poland
Switzerland Czech Republic United Kingdom
Bulgaria Russia Romania Russia
Ukraine Croatia (produced trams, 1922–195x)
United States
Canada
United States United States – Historic-streetcar replicas Canada United States 1902-1938 United States – Historic-streetcar replicas United States 1894-1912 United States 1893-1919 United States Canada Canada 1908-1920s, bought by Brill United States 1891-1952 for streetcars United States United States 1887–1973 United States 1917-1936; bus manufacturer from 1936 on United States – Low-floor modern streetcars
Argentina
Australia – Historic-tramcar replicas Australia Historic-tramcar replicas Australia
Hong Kong
India India India
Japan Japan Japan Japan Japan Japan
One of the earliest literary references to trams occurs on the second page of Henry James's novel The Europeans:
Published in 1878, the novel is set in the 1840s, though horse trams were not introduced in Boston till the 1850s. Note how the tram's efficiency surprises the European visitor; how two "remarkably small" horses sufficed to draw the "huge" tramcar.
James also makes comical reference to the novelty and excitement of trams in Portrait of a Lady (1881):
A quarter of a century later, Joseph Conrad described Amsterdam's trams in chapter 14 of The Mirror of the Sea (1906): From afar at the end of Tsar Peter Straat, issued in the frosty air the tinkle of bells of the horse tramcars, appearing and disappearing in the opening between the buildings, like little toy carriages harnessed with toy horses and played with by people that appeared no bigger than children.
Danzig trams figure extensively in the early stages of Günter Grass's Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum). In the last chapter the novel's hero Oskar Matzerath and his friend Gottfried von Vittlar steal a tram late at night from outside Unterrath depot on the northern edge of Düsseldorf.
It is a surreal journey. Von Vittlar drives the tram through the night, south to Flingern and Haniel and then east to the suburb of Gerresheim. Meanwhile, inside, Matzerath tries to rescue the half-blind Victor Weluhn (who had escaped from the siege of the Polish post office in Danzig at the beginning of the book and of the war) from his two green-hatted would-be executioners. Mazerath deposits his briefcase, which contains Sister Dorotea's severed ring finger in a preserving jar, on the dashboard "where professional motorman put their lunchboxes". They leave the tram at the terminus and the executioners tie Weluhn to a tree in von Vittlar's mother's garden and prepare to machine-gun him. But Matzerath drums, Weluhn sings, and together they conjure up the Polish cavalry, who spirit both victim and executioners away. Matzerath asks von Vittlar to take his briefcase in the tram to the police HQ in the Fürstenwall, which he does.
The latter part of this route is today served by tram route 703 terminating at Gerresheim Stadtbahn station ("by the glassworks" as Grass notes, referring to the famous glass factory).[39]
In his 1967 spy thriller An Expensive Place to Die, Len Deighton misidentifies the Flemish coast tram: "The red glow of Ostend is nearer now and yellow trains rattle alongside the motor road and over the bridge by the Royal Yacht Club..."[40] [Chapter 38, page 198 of the Companion Book Club edition.]
Model trams are popular in HO scale (1:87) and O scale (1:48 in the US and generally 1:43 in Europe and Asia). They are typically powered and will accept plastic figures inside. Common manufacturers are Roco and Lima, with many custom models being made as well. The German firm Hödl [42] and the Austrian Halling[43] specialize in 1:87 scale.[44]
In the US, Bachmann Industries is a mass supplier of HO trams and kits. Bowser Manufacturing has produced white metal models for over 50 years.[45] There are many boutique vendors offering limited run epoxy and wood models. At the high end are highly detailed brass models which are usually imported from Japan or Korea and can cost in excess of $500. Many of these run on 16.5 mm gauge track, which is correct for the representation of 4 ft 81⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge) in HO scale as in US and Japan, but incorrect in 4 mm (1:76.2) scale, as it represents 4 ft 1½ in (1,257 mm). This scale/gauge hybrid is called OO scale. O scale trams are also very popular among tram modellers because the increased size allows for more detail and easier crafting of overhead wiring. In the US these models are usually purchased in epoxy or wood kits and some as brass models. The Saint Petersburg Tram Company [46] produces highly detailed polyurethane non-powered O Scale models from around the world which can easily be powered by trucks from vendors like Q-Car. [47]
In the US, one of the best resources for model tram enthusiasts is the East Penn Traction Club of Philadelphia.[48]
It is thought that the first example of a working model tramcar in the UK built by an amateur for fun was in 1929, when Frank E. Wilson created a replica of London County Council Tramways E class car 444 in 1:16 scale, which he demonstrated at an early Model Engineer Exhibition. Another of his models was London E/1 1800, which was the only tramway exhibit in the Faraday Memorial Exhibition of 1931. Together with likeminded friends, Frank Wilson went on to found the Tramway & Light Railway Society [49] in 1938, establishing tramway modelling as a hobby.
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Belarus : Minsk
Belgium : De Panne - Knokke-Heist - Brussels - Ghent - Antwerp - Charleroi Czech Republic : Prague
Finland : Helsinki - Turku France : Bordeaux - Grenoble - Lille - Lyon - Marseille - Montpellier - Nantes - Nice - Paris - Rouen - Saint-Etienne - Strasbourg - Valenciennes Germany : Berlin - Bremen - Dresden - Düsseldorf - Frankfurt am Main - Freiburg
Greece : Athens, construction in Patras, Ioannina, Volos. There are projects for Rhodes and Kavala
Ireland : Dublin Italy : Milan, Turin, Rome, Florence
Netherlands : Amsterdam,[50] Rotterdam,[51] Den Haag,[52] Utrecht[53]
Norway : Oslo Poland : Warsaw - Poznań Romania : Urban Tramway Systems in Romania Russia : St Petersburg - Volgograd
Serbia : Belgrade
Slovakia : Kosice, Bratislava Spain : Alicante - Barcelona - Bilbao - Madrid - Seville - Valencia
Sweden : Gothenburg - Norrköping Switzerland : Basel - Zürich United Kingdom : Blackpool - Edinburgh - London - Manchester - Midlands - Nottingham - Sheffield Argentina : Buenos Aires Canada : Toronto United States : Baltimore - Boston - San Diego - Denver - Philadelphia - Portland, OR - Kenosha - Seattle
Venezuela : Valencia
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